Ethiopian duo win in Northern Ireland for second year on the trot with UK all-comers’ records

There was no world record for Yalemzerf Yehualaw in the Antrim Coast Half-Marathon on Sunday (Aug 28) but her performance will act as a warning shot to her rivals at the TCS London Marathon on October 2.

The 23-year-old Ethiopian blasted through 5km in a sizzling 14:44 and 10km in an unofficial UK all-comers’ record of 29:52 before slowing in the latter stages as she ran alone to the finish in 64:22.

She missed Letesenbet Gidey’s world record of 62:52 but it was nevertheless a UK all-comers’ record – beating Edith Chelimo’s mark of 65:52 from Cardiff in 2017 – and shows she is in great form ahead of her London clash with world marathon record-holder Brigid Kosgei, among others, in five weeks’ time.

In 2021 Yehualaw ran what appeared to be a world record of 63:43 at the Antrim Coast event, but her result was disallowed after the course was found to be 54m short. This time, however, there were no doubts about the distance and she set off with intentions of attacking Gidey’s world record, which was set in Valencia last October.

She was surrounded by men like Callum Hawkins – the Scottish runner who was fourth in the World Championships marathon in 2017 and 2019 – before then finding herself running solo in the latter stages.

Successfully defending her Antrim Coast crown, though, she finished well ahead of runner-up Tsehay Gemechu of Ethiopia, who ran 65:01 to go No.12 on the world all-time rankings, with Beatrice Mutai of Kenya third in 67:37, Fionnuala Ross of Northern Ireland fourth in 74:00 and England’s Kate Drew fifth in 74:30.

“I’m so happy to come here again and I’m very happy to win this race,” said Yehualaw. “The last 5km was a little slower than I hoped but it was good.

“As for the world record, I will try next time and I hope to be back here again as I like this race. I love it here – it has very nice people and it’s a very nice town.”

Kosgei will be the runner to beat in London in a few weeks’ time but as well as her Antrim Coast exploits Yehualaw set a world 10km road record of 29:14 in February and clocked the fastest ever female debut marathon of 2:17:23 in Hamburg in April.

There as another Ethiopian victory in the men’s race as Jemal Yimer enjoyed a runaway win to clock a UK all-comers’ record of 59:04, beating Geoffrey Kamworor’s mark of 59:10 from Cardiff in 2016. Like Yehualaw the 25-year-old was a returning winner from 2021, too.

Alfred Ngeno of Kenya was second in 61:00 as Shadrack Kiminig, also of Kenya, finished third in 61:08.

Marc Scott was the leading Brit with 62:58 in fifth as Hawkins, who is returning from injury, clocked 64:03.